Rafa’s excited over new signings

Liverpool is all set to get bolstered with new signings. Manager Rafael Benitez is gung-ho about the possible move of major players like Javier Mascherano, Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso into his Liverpool squad. To add to the excitement is the speculated buy-out of ‘The Kid’ Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid. Although played down by the Madrid officials, this move is definitely in the offing.

Evidently elated that his top target is within his grasp, Benitez expressed his delight about these signings.

“You must always be excited at the start of a new season. You must also have confidence in your team and hopefully we will soon bring in the new players that we want to make the squad better.”

Benitez made no bones about the club’s intentions and said,

“We are working on new signings all the time. As I've already said, the spine of the team is in place and now we just need to add to that.”

Reliable sources have revealed that only the personal terms need to be sorted out with the Spanish Club. Anfield officials, however, are quite sure that the deal is almost through and they are apparently paying close to the £27m buy-out clause, included in the player's contract.

It is also expected that Liverpool would sell Luis Garcia to Atletico for £4m. He has been in the sidelines due to the knee injury that he has been recovering from. He was missing for most part of the last season. Although Benitez would love to retain him, the stiff competition between Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard for the midfield slot has virtually ruled out the possibility of Luis Garcia regaining his place.

The deal with Mohammed Sissoko is also a great pleasure for Benitez.

“It's good that we will be able to see the energy of Momo all around the pitch for a few more years. It's a major positive for us.”

The signings are also making the midfield a tightly contested slot after the capture of young Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva for £5m. The induction of Leiva and Ukrainian striker Andriy Voronin will mean that Craig Bellamy and Cisse would also be sold.

The record-breaking Torres deal will certainly hit Benitez’s finances. The sale of Leiva, Cisse and Garcia will help in easing it out a bit, though. The sell-out of these players is predicted to raise around £16m.

Benitez seems to be balancing his European talent buy-out with some young recruits like Bilbao defender Mikel San Jose, Bulgarian U21 goalkeeper Nikolay Mikhailov, Hungarian youngsters Krisztian Nemeth, and Andras Simon from MTK Budapest.

Additionally, the club has announced that they have signed two more 16-year-olds for the academy. They are striker Marvin Pourie from Borussia Dortmund and Alex Kacaniklic from Swedish club Helsingborgs. Liverpool seems to have its top priority sorted out for now.